Hello, my name is Jim. I've been playing off & on for thirty years (more "off" than "on"). Took the biggest break to raise my family of three kids. The children are now out of the house, and I have been getting back into playing. I use to gig in my younger days, but now I am more into the home recording scene and just jamming around with friends. I enjoy playing all kinds of musical instruments, but tend to gravitate towards guitar. I admit......I am hopelessly addicted to all things Fender!

^ welcome!

Jim,

Nice to meet you and welcome!

_________________
BP

Hats Off To You Blessed Musicians

• '07 Fender Standard Strat HSS (Midnight Wine)
• '03 Epiphone LP Special (White)
• '86 Charvel Model 2 (Black)

www.myspace.com/brattscovil
www.starvingpencil.com

Thanks, guys. Nice to meet you all as well. I've never really gotten into the internet community thing, so forgive me if my etiquette is lacking.

it's alright haha... most of us are nice and won't bite

You'll be addicted before you know it. And making lots of new friends.

_________________
BP

Hats Off To You Blessed Musicians

• '07 Fender Standard Strat HSS (Midnight Wine)
• '03 Epiphone LP Special (White)
• '86 Charvel Model 2 (Black)

www.myspace.com/brattscovil
www.starvingpencil.com

Greg Mitchell...forty something bass player. I am employed by the State of Georgia (don't ask), but would MUCH rather play music. I have a band......'The Vintage Band'........since 1992, and we occaisionally gig.
I love to play Rock, Southern Rock, country, Jazz......anything really as long as it doesn't have to have a I,IV pattern.
We all look like this:

Which ones you?

He's the BASS Player. Head is behind guitar player in front.

_________________
BP

Hats Off To You Blessed Musicians

• '07 Fender Standard Strat HSS (Midnight Wine)
• '03 Epiphone LP Special (White)
• '86 Charvel Model 2 (Black)

www.myspace.com/brattscovil
www.starvingpencil.com

Hi there! I just found this forum and signed up so I'm still trying to figure out how to use it. Y'all don't realy wanna know my life story. It's not that pretty at all.

I started out playing flutophone (recorder) in 4th grade. Wanted to play cello but couldn't get one. Tried violin and hated it, probably 'cause I couldn't make it sound good. Tried clarinet 'cause my folks had a very old one and didn't really like that, either, but kept at it through sixth grade. Then I got to try alto sax and was very good at that but, in high school, due to things that would be illegal now, I didn't get to continue in school and where was I supposed to go in Bakersfield, Ca, to play sax?

I was studying electronics and classmates and neighbors kept trading me dead guitars in return for car radio repairs. I'd make 'em playable as best I could (I was also learning motorcycle mechanics 'cause I loved 'em and still do) with no special tools or parts or even knowing proper set-up procedures or buying new strings, and sell 'em off for cheap. Heck, I didn't know where to buy new strings and fretwork was a total mystery, if I couldn't make it work with what was there. And I never played 'em. Just fixed 'em up, making sure they didn't buzz anywhere, and passed 'em on.

Finally, just before I went in the Navy, someone traded me a pretty nice Tele clone and Grampa had been hanging on to an old Fender Deluxe that he'd acquired somewhere for a long time (no, he never played anything but a reel-to-reel), so I talked him out of it and started trying to learn to play. I don't recall what I did with that guitar but I soon got a LP clone and kept at it. I traded off my sax for my first acoustic, a Yamaha FG-180, and didn't care for the tone. I still didn't know much about different strings and bone saddles and nuts and sold that off and got an Applause, since I loved the round-back sound and it also seemed very tough to the way a sailor has to live. I eventually got rid of the LP clone and bought a Gibson Marauder that I kept for ages, finally passing it on to pay rent one more month when my life was falling apart.

Now I'm almost fifty and am still a self-taught hack guitarist. To some extent, playing guitar is an excuse to sing. I love music and have a lot of vinyl, LPs and 45s, as well as cassettes and CDs. I even have some 8 tracks, reel tapes, and a DCC deck. I never copied anyone or played with anyone else much but finally started writing songs and playing open mics about ten years ago. Folks have been telling me I'm pretty good ever since but I didn't start believing it until about a year ago, though I'd often go to bars and think I was better than the goofs getting paid. I've some stuff archived on the web and am putting together a demo, albeit very slowly.

I want to be a better songwriter and decided I needed to know more basic music theory. I signed up for college and am now working towards a couple of degrees, Audio Production and Music Business. I've been on Social Security Disability for ages and finally quit trying to get work, though I'm not without skills, so I don't know if any of this degree stuff will lead to a job, either, but I'm having a lot of fun in college and have all A grades so far (six classes plus one I took in the Navy that transferred).

I'm trained as a luthier and do a little guitar work here and there (can't get on at a shop I'm willing to work at-so many of them are less than ethical around here and I won't work in the back shop if they're cheats at the front counter) and built my current workhorse acoustic, a koa jumbo, and two solid bodies of my own design. If nothing else, I'm having fun.

I also have ridden motorcycles for 36 years, including nine years of observed trials competitions, ending with four Nationals in 1993, and have owned about 300 of 'em. I still have an old Moto Guzzi and so my handle comes from MOTOrcycles and MUSIC, the two loves of my life. "Moto" is the term for motorcycle in Europe and that also indicates my preference for Euro bikes, though I've owned a couple of Harleys and many Japanese bikes, too. My competition bikes were Spanish, Japanese, and Italian. My most missed bike is my '79 Triumph Bonneville Special.

Being married was a mistake for me and I never shoulda done it. No kids. One dog, a Yorky mix, that I rescued from the street about a week before last Christmas, named Gilligan Geetar, though I raised a bloodline of Chihuoodles for 12 years while I was married and competing. I'm a regular at the FDP, though school has kept me busy.

Forty-something years in ten paragraphs.....

Nice Resume motomusic!

_________________
BP

Hats Off To You Blessed Musicians

• '07 Fender Standard Strat HSS (Midnight Wine)
• '03 Epiphone LP Special (White)
• '86 Charvel Model 2 (Black)

www.myspace.com/brattscovil
www.starvingpencil.com

^ haha ya t'was a nice description...welcome!

hi i,m rené just made an acount on the fender site and today I bought a fender stratocaster

^ welcome! what type of strat did you get?

the maple neck arctic white standard mexican strat